Phantom Disappearances
by RandomTheatrix
Summary: A story about Melinda, and her journey to find and control her great and terrible talent. Takes place four years after the Phantom's "Disappearance".
1. Memories

**Phantom Disappearances**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from Phantom, just my OC, Melinda.**

**Oh, and according to my story, the Opera Extraordinaire continued on about a year after Christine and Raoul left, but floundered dramatically after word got out of what happened. The managers shut it down and no one else bought it. **

**This story happens about four years afterwards. **

She walked in front of the old Opera house and shivered, trying to avoid its looming shadows and ghostly whispers of operas long gone.

"_They really should tear it down, nothing is there but bad memories…"_she thought, forcing herself to believe that she hadn't seen a cape fly across the entry way. _"Oh, good…it's just a cobweb…" _she sighed. Her chilled face relaxed a little. She had always hated that Opera house, not because of its ghostliness, but because of the tragedy that took her best friend.

_Flashback_

"_Cat! No! We can't actually go _inside_ the Opera! It's haunted! Haven't you ever heard of Christine Daii and the Opera Ghost?! They didn't call him that for nothing, you know!" Melinda cried to her best friend, Catolina. _

"_Of course I've heard of it! What French person hasn't?" she tartly replied, her bouncing curls framing her face and her eyes sparkling as she swung around._

"_Oh, let's see…YOU! You're not even French! You're Spanish! And besides, we don't have time, mother will kill me if I don't get home and help with supper!" Melinda cried out, twisting her arm out of Catolina's grip. _

"_Your mother can just wait. Doesn't she have your precious older sister to help?" Cat sarcastically replied. Both of them knew that Madeline, Melinda's older sister, wouldn't even lift a finger if she didn't have to. She just spent all of her time reading and talking with her many friends. _

_Melinda sighed. She knew that Cat wouldn't give up, no matter what, and whether she liked it or not (and she _really_ didn't like it), she would have to venture inside the musty building and creep around, studying the various objects and statues. _

_They crept through the "DO NOT ENTER" signs and gasped at what they saw._

_It was a beautiful staircase with statues all around it, the only disfiguration in it was the layers of dust and snow that had found it's way in from the cracks in the ceiling and the four years of neglect. _

_Catolina immediantly ran to one of the statues, touching its base with wide, excited eyes. _

"_Do you see all of this? Are you recognizing it? This is it! The Phantom was standing," she rushed up the stares and stood on the small platform. "right _here_! Remember how the papers said that she was abducted by him at the masquerade, in a 'cloud of devil red dust'?!" She quoted the papers, then rambled, something she tended to do a lot when she was genuinely excited. _

"_Yes, I see it…" Melinda stared in awe at the staircase, breathing her words out. She was afraid, but not of the Phantom. She was afraid to breath, to stand, to talk in this place, this opera house, filled with tales of triumph and tears, heartbreak and horror. _

"_Let's leave." Melinda said urgently, the silence and fear leaving immediantly. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. Then she saw it. _

"_Cat!" she called out, eyes widening in fear. _

"_We aren't leaving, I don't want to." Cat stated matter-of-factly. _

"_Cat!" She called again, shaking with horror._

"_What?" Cat asked, curiously running her fingers over the staircase rail, leaving trails of bronze where the dust was. _

"_Cat…" Melinda spoke now in a whisper, scared stiff._

_Suddenly becoming alarmed at her friend's voice, Cat looked up and recoiled in slight shock as she noticed how pale Melinda was. Her eyes were widened out and her skin wasn't the usual peach and pale mixture. Instead it was milky white, trails of blue and purple and red around her eyes, pure fright dancing through her. _

"_What?!" Cat repeated, urgently this time, rushing to her friend. Melinda slowly lifted a hand into the air, pointing somewhere beyond the staircase. Cat followed her gaze and gasped. _

_There, in the dark corridor above the stairs, was a man. A mask covered half of his face, and his cape covered his body. At a closer look, you could see-_

"_The Phantom! He must have died here! And by his very own Punjab lasso!" Cat exclaimed with a note of awe. _

_Melinda turned her livid white eyes towards her crazy best friend. "WHAT are you _talking_ about?! The guy died! He's DEAD! How can you think that isn't scary?!" _

_Cat looked at Melinda with a scowl. "Of course it's scary! But after having to go through 'Day of the Dead' in Spain, you kinda lose whatever fear you've ever had." _

_Melinda stared in awe at Cat. Here they were, in the creepy run-down Opera house, with a DEAD PHANTOM not even twenty feet from him and she wasn't really caring! In fact, here she goes, to…examine him?! Melinda shook her head and went after Cat. Grabbing her by the arm, Melinda spun her around and started to drag her off. _

"_Melinda! No! We need to see it! He might still be alive! Or maybe it's not even him! It could just be a hoax…the Opera Ghost's very own warning to us!" Cat's eyes clearly showed excitement, but with a hint of fear. Melinda knew that if she really and truly wanted to poke and prod the Phantom's carcass, then she would have easily twisted away and gone back. _

"_You're extremely gruesome." Melinda stated. Of course, both already knew this. In a strange sort of way, Melinda would say that Catolina was a boy. Of course, she wasn't one, but she had all the cliché of one. She was the girl who would gladly examine a bug in class. When she was a child, before she moved to France, she was probably the only girl in Spain who would gladly play in the mud. At a second thought of this, though, Melinda decided that that probably wasn't true. From what Catolina has told her about Spain, most people build their actual houses out of mud. But Melinda dismissed this thought when Cat finally was brave enough to wrench away from Melinda and took off in the balcony's direction. It was a short run, but was finished off with a graceful bound up the stairs. _

_Melinda could sense that something was happening. Her brain slowly registered that Cat was screaming…Falling…_

_Melinda rushed up to her, but it was too late…Melinda saw her body, lying on the ground, a look of terror frozen on her face…_

_Everything went black…_

_Darkness took over…_

_And a scream echoed through the Opera._

**CLIFFHANGER! MWAHAHAHAHA! Well, not really a cliffhanger…anyway, I know things got a little confusing, but if you don't understand it, just tell me what ya don't get and I will explain it in the next chapter. **

::hums "Angel of Music"::


	2. Getting over things

Phantom Disappearances 

Shout out to Leeah, my first reviewer, who is also someone I happen to know very well. HI! THANK YOU!

_Everything went black…_

_Darkness took over…_

_And a scream echoed through the Opera._

Melinda shivered again as she remembered. The Police had told her that a passer by had heard the scream, and found her, lying on the ground, unconscious. Then she saw Cat, laying a floor below, surrounded by mirrors. Supposedly, this was the Torture room of the Phantom. She awoke in her bed, her mother stroking her hand, her sister pacing the room, and her father nowhere in sight. After a glass of water and a few soothing words, Melinda realized that her best friend wasn't there to worry over her.

_"Catolina!" she had cried in agony. Her mother, trying to prepare herself for this, rushed to her and hugged Melinda as the tears poured down her face. _

_"Sh-sh-sh, darling, please, just calm down, you're okay, and Cat's in a better place now…Sh-sh-sh…" Her mother signaled to Madeline._

_"Go get some warm milk, alright, dear?" Mrs. Pomme whispered._

_Silent, Madeline crept to the kitchen, and in a few moments came into Melinda's room. Melinda was shaking her head, occasionally whispering or yelling a "No!" with tears still being shed. _

Tears sprung in her eyes, finishing the flashback that had haunted her since the incident three months ago. Past the Opera, she hurried on to her home.

"Mama, I'm home!" she called out. The smell of cookies led her to the kitchen, and Melinda's eyes widened in surprise. Madeline was standing with a spatula in her hand, lifting the cookies gently from the hot sheet.

"What?" Madeline asked. "You don't expect me to know how to do anything?"

Grabbing a cookie, Melinda shrieked and ran from the room when she commented on this, and Madeline swatted at her.

She fell on her bed and hummed a tune that she and Madeline had sung when they were younger.

_"Lovely birds and flowers galore, taking me to my own world! There's a tune I love to sing, and here it is again! Lovely sand and water at the beachfront! There's a tune I love to sing, this is the end, goodbye!" _

When they were bored Madeline would hum a little song, something they had never heard before. Melinda made up the words. She closed her eyes and day dreamed.

"Maybe if I think a little, about what life was like, before the sorrow and the sadness, before all of the strife…" she sang. Her voice had always been okay, not the best, but a tutor could help with that. (A/N: dun dun dun…can you tell what I'm thinking?)

She picked up a book and began to read. Lately that's all she would do. Madeline was perfectly fine with that. She was thrilled that her sister would actually want to read. Though she did have to admit, she had been shunning her chores and not doing to good in school. Madeline kind of knew what the problem was…her sister was falling into depression…and falling fast.

I know, I know, the chapter is short, but oh well, at least I updated! So, click the little purpley-blue button and tell me whatcha think!


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